Bahamas $80 million dollar shark tourism industry grows again

9 March 2013

Safe shark diving is good for tourism; a live shark can be worth “tens of thousands of dollars” compared to the “hundreds” that can be made by selling its fins. With that in mind an enterprising team of industry experts have created the world’s first educational dockside shark diving site on the small island of Bimini, Bahamas to help dispel myths and misconceptions of sharks.

Bimini Bull Run is headquartered at the Bimini Big Game Club, a 30 minute flight from the South Florida and a legendary outpost for fishermen, host to numerous major sport fishing tournaments for more than half a century. At this marina Bull Sharks (Carcharhinus leucas) have regularly visited since the time Hemmingway called Big Game home looking for fresh fish scraps from cleaning tables.

A spokesperson for the site said: “We’re very excited to be able to offer one day guaranteed shark encounters with this completely unique and misunderstood shark species. Sharks are under siege around the world and we have found that positive encounters with sharks change attitudes and mind sets allowing for the continued preservation of these animals in ways that negative encounters cannot accomplish and for us safety is key. We built a large infrastructure to keep sharks and people safe, it’s a completely new operation that allows divers, non divers, and film and TV productions a unique place to encounter them in their natural habitat.”

Bimini Bull Run is a commercial concept endorsed and supported by the Shark-Free Marinas Initiative and the Bahamas Film Commission. Bimini Bull Runs specially designed cage systems are attached to purpose built docks that allow divers, non divers, filmmakers, and underwater photographers access this unique and thrilling underwater world.